Causing a storm: Chelsea had hoped to unveil Robinho against
Spurs on Sunday.
Robinho's anticipated £29.5million move to
Chelsea
has hit a major snag after Real Madrid manager Bernd
Schuster told club president Ramon Calderon that he could not
sanction the deal.
The German, who guided Real to the Spanish title last season,
was said to be furious at the potential sale. He refused to talk to
reporters after Wednesday's 5-3 friendly win over Sporting Lisbon
at the Bernabeu and is believed to have even threatened to quit
should the striker be sold.
Chelsea, who maintained today that transfer talks were ongoing,
had hoped to parade the Brazilian in front of the Stamford Bridge
crowd before Sunday's game against Tottenham. But Robinho turned up
for training with Real this morning and Calderon appeared to offer
the player an olive branch in an interview with Madrid-based paper
Marca.
The president pointed the finger at Robinho's agent Wagner
Ribeiro and claimed that the striker had been badly advised before
he said he wanted to join Chelsea last Friday.
Calderon said: 'I think it's normal that a player says that he
wants to leave and in the case of Robinho I accept that as being
totally normal. 'It seems to me that it's a mistake, but it's his
problem. I think that his representatives are advising him very
badly and I have a lot of faith in the player. I believe he has a
lot of quality and could be successful here.
'But I say it again that I have to defend the interests of this
club in the best way possible.' With just four days remaining until
the end of the transfer window, Chelsea will now be concerned.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon had confidently claimed Robinho
would be their player before the weekend but it now appears talks
will do down to the wire.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich is adamant that he will not pay any
more than £29.5 for the Brazilian, even though he was on a list of
two players that Phil Scolari wanted to sign this summer - the
other being Deco.
Real have been trying to find a replacement for Robinho (above)
and have been closely linked with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka,
another Chelsea target. The pursuit of Manchester United's Ronaldo
ended when the winger finally committed to staying at Old Trafford
for at least another season and Kaka wants to stay in Milan.
